These systems are based on the evaluation of images that were acquired by means of a camera, e.g. a CMOS camera. For evaluation, a special image processing algorithm is used that evaluates structures in the acquired images that are characteristic of a traffic lane and the course thereof, e.g. road markings or verges of a traffic lane, such as crash barriers and the like. This evaluation is also called “tracking” since it tracks the characteristic structures in continuous images by means of image analysis.
For ensuring the operatability of such systems it is essential to evaluate the characteristic structures reliably. It is particularly important to distinguish between structures that are important for correct tracking and structures that are unimportant. Unimportant structures are, for example, turfs or snow-covered verges that may have structures that look like those of a road marking. The wrong classification of such unimportant structures as important structures may result in false tracking and thus in false warnings by an LDWS or even in a wrong LKS intervention in the steering.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to propose an improved method and an improved device for detecting the course of a traffic lane.